St. Cloud Teen Gets 11 Years For Shooting Incident

ST. CLOUD -- A Stearns County judge has denied a request for a lesser sentence in a St. Cloud shooting which critically hurt another man last March.

Eighteen-year-old Nathaniel Smith was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder in October and requested a lesser sentence because he said the shooting was in self defense.

Smith and the victim, 21-year-old Antoine Fair had an ongoing conflict between them and their families. A confrontation between Smith and Fair's family took place earlier that day and Fair was told about it. Smith said he drove himself and two others to the scene in the 100 block of 18th Avenue North to confront Fair.

Records show Smith went into a garage looking for Fair and when he came out, he said Fair was choking the front-seat passenger. Smith said he reached around Fair and grabbed a gun out of the pocket of the choking victim and shot Fair once in the back. Smith said Fair turned and charged at him so he fired two more shots toward his chest.

Medical reports indicate Fair was shot three times. The report said there were no frontal gunshot injuries to the victim. A witness also told investigators they heard one gunshot and looked out the window. She said she saw Smith standing over the victim and firing two more shots.